This is my fifth “Blogging from A to Z Challenge“. This year I wrote about 26 people in my family tree whose personal name starts with a different letter of the alphabet.
It was quite a task, but that’s the “Challenge”, after all.
I chose the person for each letter well in advance, giving me more time for research. X was a bit tricky, of course, and I had only one U to work with. Other letters gave me more choice.
Half the posts were about women (“Women hold up half the sky”, declared Chairman Mao), and many of the stories – though not intentionally chosen for it – had at least a touch of religious colouring. I am pleased to have been able to include one of my German forebears.

My family tree, with my husband Greg’s, showing the locations of the people I wrote about. [This Sun Chart generated using MyHeritage.]
- A is for Arthur
- My husband Greg’s maternal grandfather Arthur Sullivan (1891-1975)
- B is for Beatrix
- One of my great grandmothers was Beatrix Champion de Crespigny née Hughes (1884-1943)
- C is for Collier
- My first cousin three times removed was Collier Robert Cudmore (1885-1971), the cousin of my great grandfather, Arthur Murray Cudmore. Collier won an Olympic gold medal for rowing.
- D is for Daniel
- One of my seventh great grandfathers was Daniel Dana (1664-1749), a New England Puritan.
- E is for Eliza
- One of my husband’s great great grandmother was Eliza Morley née Sinden (1823 – 1908). In 1853 Eliza and her husband emigrated to Australia from Sussex, England.
- F is for Francis
- One of my husband’s great great grandfathers was Francis Gilbart Edwards (1848-1913).
- G is for Gustav
- One of my great great grandfathers on my mother’s side was Gustav Waldemar Alexander Karl Peters (1860-1904)
- H is for Henry
- My husband’s great grandfather Henry Sullivan (1863-1943)
- I is for Ichabod
- One of my 8th great grandfathers was Ichabod Chauncy (1635 -1691), another dissenter and puritan
- J is for John
- One of my husband’s great great grandfathers was John Way (1835-1911)
- K is for Kenneth
- One of my third great uncles was Kenneth George Budge (1842-1878)
- L is for Lilian
- My third cousin four times removed, who was also the sister-in law of my third great uncle, was Dr Lilian Helen Alexander (1861-1934), one of the first women doctors in Melbourne and a carer of her orphaned nephews.
- M is for Mary
- My husband Greg’s great aunt was Mary Ann Nichols, formerly Lack née Whiteman (1884-1945)
- N is for Nellie
- One of my first cousins four times removed was Eleanor Mary (Nellie) Niall (1858-1891)
- O is for Orfeur
- My third great uncle Orfeur Cavenagh (1820-1891) was one of several relations named after my fifth great grandfather John Orfeur (1695-1753)
- P is for Penelope
- My sixth great aunt Penelope Phipps (1775-1814) was left in France by her parents during the Reign of Terror. She was only 17 and had seven younger siblings to care for.
- Q is for Queenie
- My great great aunt Alice Magee née Mainwaring formerly Cavenagh-Mainwaring (1879-1952) was known as Queenie.
- R is for Rosina
- One of my husband’s maternal great aunts was Rosina Doidge née Sullivan formerly Saunders (1889-1969).
- S is for Suky
- One of my fifth great grandmothers was Susannah Lamothe née Corrin (1741-1803).
- T is for Theresa
- One of my fourth great aunts was Theresa Susannah Eunice Snell Poole formerly Walker née Chauncy (1807-1876). Theresa was a sculptor and artist.
- U is for Una
- Una Elizabeth Dwyer née Sneyd (1900-1982), first cousin twice removed of my husband Greg. After reading this post Una’s son, Greg’s cousin, contacted us.
- V is for Valencia
- Cicely Valencia Lancaster (1898-1996), known as Valencia, was my sixth cousin once removed. She left a trust to preserve Kelmarsh Hall where many Champion de Crespigny portraits and family documents are held.
- W is for William
- My husband’s first cousin twice removed was William Stanley Plowright (1893-1917). He was killed in the Battle of Lagnicourt in March 1917.
- X, her mark, revisited
- My husband’s great great grandmother Eliza Dawson née Skerritt (1838-1899) was illiterate but protested successfully when somebody tried to take advantage of her by wrongly recording her vote.
- Y is for Yannasch
- Jacob Robert Yannasch Goldstein (1841-1910) was the husband of my third great aunt. Jacob was ‘an anti-suffragist’ despite his daughter Vida Goldstein’s (1869-1949) being a noted feminist and suffragette; or perhaps Vida was a feminist and suffragette despite her father.
- Z is for Zacharie
- One of my eighth great grandfathers was Zacharie Fonnereau (1636-c. 1685), a Huguenot linen merchant from La Rochelle.
This year there were more detailed categories to choose and one of those was “genealogy”. Through the month I was pleased to follow some fellow genealogy bloggers and I appreciated their support and encouragement through the month:
- Finding Eliza – an alphabet of news items taken from The Emancipator newspaper, published between 1917 and 1920 in Montgomery, Alabama
- Everyone has a story – All about Nancy Drew
- Tracking Down the Family– a snapshot of Jennifer’s life
- The Curry Apple Orchard – Linda wrote about her father
- Lori Crane writes about her family history
- Jollett Etc family history – Wendy wrote about heirlooms that she owns and the stories associated with them
- Dianne wrote about places associated with her family history
- Anglers Rest – Julie wrote about one name studies
During the month I followed some other entertaining blogs as well.
I look forward to participating next year.
Congratulations on your successful completion of this challenge Anne. My travel activities prevented me from reading all of your posts but I did enjoy those I managed to read.
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Congratulations on making it to the end Anne. I’ve enjoyed following along with you and your family.
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Congratulations on another year of blogging A to Z. It has been a real pleasure following you and reading your stories.
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Very nice wrap-up and thank you for sharing a link to Finding Eliza. I enjoyed being able to see which blogs were genealogy focused this year.
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A lovely reflection of the month. I enjoyed the posts I read about your amazing family heritage! Reflections on 2018 A to Z Blogging Challenge
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Thank You for mentioning my A to Z – All About Nancy Drew. I enjoyed your posts and love your photo above showing all the A to Z letters of who you wrote on. I need to catch up on my readings… You have a great booklet to print of all your hard work. What will we write on next year?
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I definitely enjoy writing the A to Z and will participate next year but not sure on what yet. It helped a lot this year that had thought what I would write in advance for the tricky letters. Thanks for reading and commenting through the challenge 🙂
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I remember reading some of your posts through the challenge and marvelling at how much research you must have done to do your posts
Debbie
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Congratulations, Anne, on completing the mammoth A-Z Challenge. I admire your stamina in giving us such fascinating posts over the month – you have so many interesting and varied aspects to,your family history. I liked the way here you gave us the summary of the posts.
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What a fun idea! I especially love what you did with X.
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Thank you for visiting my blog.
I enjoyed your posts, particularly J for Jump. The jump for joy reminds me of the Toyota advertisement “Oh what a feeling” which seems to have been around for many years here in Australia.
For some reason the technology gremlins would not let me leave a comment on your blog 😦
Regards
Anne
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